STUFF

DOE nuke waste treatment plant at Hanford a mess. Design probs could lead to chem explosions, nuke reactions, mech breakdowns. Overlaying unknown, unproven science. Leaking storage tanks. Radioactive sludge. Hydrogen that could burn, explode. In '11, est. plant cost $12.2B. Construction began in '01. (Would be nice to get a handle on the waste leaking down to water table at least.)

Comp proposing liquid propane storage facil on Maine coast withdrew their ap. Folks protested for 3 yrs. $50M project. Comp still wants to do export facil on east coast. Just not in Maine.

Low carbon prices crippling plan to subsidize energy efficient light bulbs in India.

EU factories, power plants cut emissions 1.4% in '12.

Europe's clean/ren gen capacity est. 40% - 512Gw - by '20. More than fossil fuels. Nukes the rest (clean, obviously.) Fossil gen 471Gw. EU aims for 20% clean/ren by '20. Norway will have 96% by '20, Swiss 73%, Montenegro 69%, Latvia 68%. Estonia 83% fossil gen by '20, Netherlands 80%, Cyprus 78%, Poland 75%. Nuke capacity to increase until '15, then decrease.

New GE 2.5Mw wind turbine for low wind speed getting tested in Netherlands. 25% more efficient, 15% more power output than current 2.85Mw model. Capacity factor more than 45%. Power gen starts at 3 meters/sec. New system analyzes thousands of data points/sec. Sensors track wind V and direction, blade pitch, etc. Communicates with other turbines. Could expand to wind farms com with each other, com with grids.

Maine Standard Biodiesel to triple production capacity to ~1M gal/yr. Used cooking oil feedstock from ~600 New England restaurants. Process byproduct gets put into methane digester.

Algenetix raised $2M. Aims to boost algae oil accumulation. Tech vastly improves oil productivity in microbes by accelerating oil accum, preventing degradation in cell. Working with Miss State U lab.

EDG Fuels (AZ) selling modular 3MGY biodiesel plant. 60K gal feedstock storage capacity, 30K gal production storage.

San Diego Center for Algal Biotech using Algae Harvesting Tech optimized dissolved air flotation system from World Water Works. System harvests up to 9K gal algae-laden water per minute. 95% capture rate. Yields up to 20% algae concentrations.

2 biodiesel plants opened in Brazil using Tilapia waste for feedstock. Combined production 8K liters/day.

Ukraine 2-yr plan to convert 29 distilleries to ethanol production to supply E5 mandated blend by '14. Distillers production should reach 360K metric tons/yr. Also encouraging sugar producers to produce ethanol rather than export surplus.

Hess selling 90% stake in Russian unit to Lukoil for $2.05B. Lukoil production in decline past 3 yrs. Rapidly depleting wells in W Siberia. Disappointing output from new drill sites in N Russia. Hess unit now producing ~50K boe/d, est. 85M metric tons in reserves. Hess also lately announced asset sales in N Sea, TX, Azerbaijan. Hoping for $3.4B net. Plan to return capital to shareholders. (? Dividend raise?)

Blue Oak Energy completed 4.2Mw PV solar farm in Cal. Power goes to City of Gridley, BART. Trina Solar panels. Single-axis tracking.

Ginraj completed 33Mw PV solar in India. 3 projects - 19, 11, 3Mw. Ginraj a tobacco trader. Selling power to local distributor.

Citi beat out Santander (Spain) as world's greenest bank in '12 on wind power push.

Bill Gates invested in batt maker Aquion Energy (Pittsburgh). His 3rd bet on energy storage startups since '11. Comp completed $35M round. Using saltwater, rather than acid or alkaline, to conduct el. "Enviro benign" batts. Not flammable, not explosive, not corrosive. (Saltwater's not corrosive?) Commercial production start Q4. At least 500Mwh capacity/yr. Gates also invested in LightSail Energy, Ambri.

Oekom Research says only 1 in 6 global corp giants get "good" rating for commitment to sustainability. None get highest rating. 62%, though, report they pursue sustainability strategies. Almost 2/3 those that do say it's profitable. Paper, forest industry led sectors with 47% score (of 100%). Worst were real estate, oil/gas. No best performers in US. 7 in UK. Vast majority of rest in Europe.

Thailand's state utility achieved 15,700Ghw of energy savings '92-'12.

Legal challenges from all sides over EPA rules on backup generators at power plants, other industrial.

Survey: "solid majority" of Republicans say US should tackle global warming.

EPA revoked approval of import, sale of 74K Chinese vehicles.

Hansen: using nuke reactors prevents petrol-related air pollution deaths. (Coal, NG too.)

Ark officials launched probe of Exxon pipeline spill. (Follow the money. Would Exxon benefit from Keystone pipe not being approved? O, they wouldn't do that, would they? Or who does benefit from Keystone turndown? Would the "crazy" enviros create a spill?)

BP exited US wind biz.